Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Visiting Assistant Professor of French, Scripps, Claremont Colleges, California, July 2012-June 2016
Successful formal third-year review by Appointments, Promotion and Tenure committee, May 2015
Joint appointments with Harvey Mudd and Claremont McKenna Colleges, July 2013-June 2015
Instructor of English and Art History, University of Paris 10, France, September 2011-June 2012
Assistant Lecturer of French, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, August 2004-May 2009
EDUCATION
University of Southern California
PUBLICATIONS
Manuscript (submitted and under external review): The Artist as Animal in Nineteenth Century France. The
editors of Palgrave Macmillan Animals and Literature series solicited the manuscript, which they gave a
favorable review internally. They have now sent the manuscript to external reviewers.
Second book project (in progress): Steel Birds and Mechanical Fish: Machine Aesthetics and Environmental Loss
in French and Francophone Fiction
Book chapters and journal articles:
Chercher la Bte: Ecocritical Aesthetics in Emile Zolas Thrse Raquin. (in progress) French Ecocriticism. Ed.
Stephanie Posthumus and Daniel Race-Finch. New York: Peter Lang, Solicited for 2016. Print
A Lost Paradise on the Left Bank: An Ecocritical Study of J.K. Huysmanss La Rive gauche and La
Bivre. Ecopoetics. Spec. issue of Dix-neuf 19.3 (2015). Web
Introduction: The Mad Genius of Mirbeau. Octave Mirbeau. In the Sky. Trans. Ann Sterzinger with
Claire Nettleton and Robert Ziegler. Charleston: Nine Banded Books, 2015. Print
Driving Us Crazy: Fast Cars, Madness and the Avant-Garde in Octave Mirbeaus La 628-E8. Nineteenth
Century French Studies 42 (2014). U of Nebraska P: 250-263. Print.
Les hiboux ne sont pas ce que lon pense : Lanimal et le meurtre dans lart de David Lynch. Que la Bte
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meure ! Spec. issue of Revue Histoire Culturelle et Sociale de lArt (2014). Panthon Sorbonne U : 1-14. Web
The Caged Animal: The Avant-garde Artist in Edmond and Jules de Goncourt's Manette Salomon.Animals,
Literature, and the Visual. Spec. issue of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture 24 (2013): 75-88.
L'Animal et l'esthtique nihiliste de Dans le ciel. Cahiers Octave Mirbeau 20 (2013): 63-79. Print.
Postmodern Poodles and Electric Sows: Contemporary Representations of Beaut Animale. The Real
Snake: Proceedings of the Representational Art Conference. California Lutheran UP (2013): 151-161. Print.
Book reviews:
Octave Mirbeaus Fictions of the Transcendental. Robert Ziegler. French Studies. Oxford UP. Solicited for 2016.
L'Europe en automobile: Octave Mirbeau, crivain voyageur. Eds. lonore Reverzy and Guy Ducrey. Nineteenth
Century French Studies 41. U of Nebraska P (2013): 345-247. Print.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
LAquarium de Berlin: A Majestic Oasis Within a Contaminated City. Nineteenth Century French
Studies Colloquium. Princeton University, NJ, November 2015.
Buffon vs. the Beast: Taming the Wild Artist in Emile Zolas Thrse Raquin. Cambridge French
Ecocriticism Colloquium. University of Cambridge, England, May 2015.
A Lost Paradise on the Left Bank: An Ecocritical Study of Huysmans, the Author of Against Nature.
Nineteenth Century French Studies Colloquium. San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 2014.
The Spirit of A Long Lost River in Huysmanss Rive Gauche. Pacific Ancient and Modern Association
Conference. Riverside, CA, October 2014.
Feline Fatale: The Thresholds of Animality and Womanhood in Rachildes LAnimale. Nineteenth Century
French Studies Colloquium. Richmond, VA, October 2013.
Poupe de Cire and the Puppet Master: Corrupting the Youth in Gainsbourg, vie hroique. Pacific
Ancient and Modern Association Conference. San Diego, CA, October 2013.
Street Walkers and Alley Cats: Prostitution in Rachildes LAnimale. South Central Modern Language
Association Conference. New Orleans, LA, October 2013.
Celestial Eden or Urban Inferno: The Jardin des Plantes in Manette Salomon. Society of Dix-Neuvimistes
Conference. University of Exeter, England, April 2013.
Driving Us Crazy: Fast Cars, Madness and the Avant-garde in Octave Mirbeau's La 628-E8.
Nineteenth Century Studies Association Conference, Fresno, CA, March 2013.
Postmodern Poodles and Electric Sows: Contemporary Representations of Beaut Animale.
The Representational Art Conference. California Lutheran U. Ventura, CA, October, 2012.
Les hiboux ne sont pas ce que l'on pense: l'animal et le meurtre dans l'art de David Lynch. Colloque Que
la Bte meure! Lanimal et lart contemporain. Institut National dHistoire de lArt and the
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MANUSCRIPT SUMMARY
The Artist as Animal in Nineteenth Century France traces the evolution of the fictional relationship between
artists and animals from the Second Empire to the fin de sicle, which, in many ways, transforms from
ambivalent to empowering. I examine Edmond and Jules de Goncourts Manette Salmon (1867), mile
Zolas Therse Raquin (1867), Jules Laforgues A LAquarium de Berlin (1895) and LImpressionnisme
(1883), Octave Mirbeaus In the Sky (1893) and Rachildes LAnimale (1893), which depict vanguard artists
as like animals, whose unique vision was uncontaminated by stifling traditions. These works of fiction were
published after Darwins The Origin of Species (1859), which decentered anthropocentric views about the
natural world. The portrayal of artists as animals helped satisfy an increasing cultural interest in wildlife
as it disappeared from the metropolis. John Berger and Akira Lippit have argued that the Industrial
Revolution, coupled with the theory of evolution, forced citizens to reconsider their relationship with other
forms of life. These literary texts assert that this revaluation of the human subject contributed to a radical,
modern aesthetic. As Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari have claimed, revolutionary art may shock the
viewer on an animal level rattling the nerves and shattering false ideologies. I argue that the artistanimal, an embodiment of artistic liberation within an urban setting, is a paradigmatic trope of modernity.
Leader and Organizer of the Harvey Mudd French Language Table, 2013-2015
Fulbright Interview Committee and French Language Evaluator, 2012-2015
Directed Research
Second Reader: Senior Thesis, French and American Studies: Jinna Johnson, Scripps College, 2015
Director: Senior Honors Thesis, French: Hannah Rose Swan, Scripps College, 2015
Second Reader: Senior Honors Thesis, French: Vittoria Mollo, Scripps College, 2015
Second Reader: Senior Honors Thesis, French: Rose DuCharme, Scripps College, 2014
Director: Senior Honors Thesis, French: Tess Sewell, Claremont McKenna College, 2014
Director: Senior Thesis, French: Peyton Batrice Scott, Scripps College, 2013
Second Reader: Senior Thesis, Foreign Languages and French: Jessica Fong, Scripps College, 2013
Second Reader: Senior Honors Thesis, History: Willa Oddleifson, Scripps College, 2013
University of Southern California
Assistant to the Chair, Department of French and Italian, 2008-2009
Departmental Representative, Graduate Student Senate, 2006-2007
LANGUAGES
Englishnative
Frenchnear native
Italianadvanced
AREAS OF INTEREST
19th-20thCentury French and Francophone Literature
19th Century-Contemporary Art
Cultural Studies
Womens Studies
Animal and Environmental Studies
French Language (all levels)
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Nineteenth Century French Studies, Nineteenth Century Studies Association, Society of Dix-Neuvimistes,
Modern Language Association, ACTFL, Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, South Central
Modern Language Association, American Association of Teachers of French, Socit Octave Mirbeau
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REFERENCES
Dr. Nathalie Rachlin, Margaret McKenzie Distinguished Professor of Modern Languages
Department of French Studies, Scripps College
1(909) 607-4260
nathalie.rachlin@scrippscollege.edu
Dr. Robert Ziegler, Emeritus Professor
Montana Tech of the University of Montana
1(406) 490-5106
Robert.earl.ziegler@gmail.com
Dr. Antonia Szabari, Associate Professor
Department of French and Italian, University of Southern California
1(213) 740-3174
Szabari@usc.edu
Dr. Eric Haskell, Department Chair and Director of Clark Humanities Museum
Department of French Studies, Scripps College
1(909) 607-2766
Eric.haskell@scrippscollege.edu
Dr. France Lemoine, Associate Professor
Department of French Studies, Scripps College
1(909) 607-8093
Flemoine@scrippscollege.edu